OZ may boycott England ODI tour over payment issues

Unhappy over performance related payment issues, Australian players are planning to boycott the ODI tour of England next month but the Cricketers Association said they have contingency plans in place in case the industrial stand-off is not resolved.

Unhappy over performance related payment issues, Australian players are planning to boycott the ODI tour of England next month but the Cricketers Association said they have contingency plans in place in case the industrial stand-off is not resolved.

According to 'The Australian', the cricketers are mulling to go on strike during the one-day tour of England scheduled to be held from June 29-July 10 or the World Twenty20 at Sri Lanka in September-October.

"Relationships between players and management are heated and threatening to become as ugly as the stand-off surrounding the first player contract negotiations during Mark Taylor's captaincy (1994-1999)," the paper said.

"Cricket Australia is playing hardball in negotiations and has frozen all state and Big Bash (domestic T20) contract talks under the threat of a Aus$50,000 ($48,400) fine until the new agreement is in place," it added.

However, Australian Cricketers Association (ACA) has made some contingency plans if in case the stand-off is not resolved before July 1 with Cricket Australia.

"There's only 29 days of negotiations left to run, so of course we are preparing for the eventuality of not having a deal in place before the end of July," Marsh said.